RELATED CATEGORIES

Anne Carson

[enter Norma Jeane as Mr Truman Capote]

Norma Jeane:

Enter chorus. I am my own chorus.I think of my chorus as Mr Truman Capote. He was a good friend, he told me the truth.You’ll never admit it when you’ve made a mess,he said to me onceand that was true.I can still hear his funny little girl voice – Trumanhad a voice like a negligee, alwaysslipping off one bare shoulder,just a bit.And he hated melodrama,though he loved to quote poetry – highbrow stuff –here’s one he says is about me –by Stevie Smith (it’s called ‘Persephone’):

I am that PersephoneWho played with her darlings in SicilyAgainst a background of social security.

Oh what a glorious time we had.Or had we not? They said it was sad.I was born good, grown bad.

And isn’t that how it always starts, this myth that ends with the girl ‘grown bad’?She’s in a meadow gathering flowerstwirling her own small sunny hours.When up rides a man on black horses.Up rides a man in a black hat.Up rides a man with a black letter to deliver.Shall I make you my queen?She’s maybe 12 or 13.Rapeis the story of Helen,Persephone,Norma Jeane,Troy.War is the contextand God is a boy.Oh my darlings,they tell you you’re born with a precious pearl.Truth is,it’s a disaster to be a girl.

Up came the black horses and the dark King.And the harsh sunshine was as if it had never been.In the halls of Hades they said I was queen.